Markiplier

Mark Fischbach and Markiplier, Inc. brought a copyright action before the federal court for the Central District of California, subsequently amending their complaint to add several defendants. The case refers in particular to screenshots, the 'Distractible' channel, copyright and trademark registrations, and discovery procedures aimed at identifying or serving certain defendants.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Protagonist is the complainant

A Schedule 13G filing revealed that Mark Fischbach owned 13.5 million GoPro Class A shares, approximately 8.5%, making him the largest reported individual/external shareholder. Shortly before public disclosure of this holding, he had published a sponsored and highly positive video about a GoPro camera with an affiliate code; The Verge noted that the video did not mention his shareholding, raising questions about the overlap between investment and product reviewing. In September, he also criticised GoPro's proposed tie-up with Starman despite the potential financial gain for his position.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

After YouTube removed a Cr1TiKaL video featuring an obviously staged fight, Markiplier pointed out that one of his old videos contained the same clip and publicly asked why it had not been sanctioned. YouTube subsequently removed his video and issued him a warning, reinforcing allegations of inconsistent enforcement.

Attribution

Directly implicated

During a livestream associated with 'A Heist with Markiplier', Mark Fischbach asked viewers to vote using red or green emojis. YouTube's moderation system then penalised some participants for spam, in several cases disabling their entire Google accounts and therefore access to Gmail, Drive or Docs. Markiplier publicly condemned the situation and called for the accounts to be restored.

State of the evidence

Documented